Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's with great pleasure that I rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-25, to support the passage of the bill and to speak about the positive impacts of the budget and the government's overarching economic strategy for people in my electorate and indeed for the nation more broadly.

I want to open with a couple of observations on the broader economic context that we find ourselves in, because that, of course, is always critical to the framing of a budget. That broader economic context is that we're coming out of a couple of years in which we have seen a global inflation surge. That inflation surge was caused by a number of factors, primarily international factors, such as the war in Ukraine and the impact that has had on energy prices, but also global supply chain factors coming out of the post-COVID international economic environment. That led to inflation rising, even before this government came to power. It's been a period in which Australia, like all advanced economies, has seen inflation rise.

It's been absolutely critical that the central bank, the RBA, and the government put in place economic strategies to put downward pressure on inflation, because inflation is an economic phenomenon that eats away at people's standard of living. Inflation is an economic phenomenon that affects those who are most vulnerable. So it has been the centrepiece of this government's economic strategy over its first three budgets to put downward pressure on inflation and specifically to bring inflation within the two to three per cent band. A great deal has been achieved. If you look at the monthly CPI, it was over eight per cent in late 2022, and it has come down substantially. It now has a three in front of it. So, at a monthly read, it has come down by more than half. In quarterly terms, it has also come down by around half. So that's significant.

We're not quite there yet. We need to get inflation within the two to three per cent band. Specifically, we now have a target of 2.5 per cent. We're not quite there yet, and inflation tends to be trickier the closer you get to the target band—the closer you get to the ultimate target. That's something we're seeing in a number of economies around the world, including the US.

Yet, even though we have a little bit of work to do on inflation, it is critical that people continue to receive assistance with cost-of-living pain, because we know that people are still doing it tough. But what it means is that we have to have cost-of-living assistance that is targeted, proportionate and well calibrated, and that's exactly what we see in this budget. We see cost-of-living assistance that will be aligned with and support monetary policy and that will help this country see inflation continue to come down over the next 12 to 24 months to where it needs to get to.

I want to talk about particular groups in my electorate—and, of course, these groups exist nationally—that will benefit from the cost-of-living measures in this budget. One of them is young people. My electorate is an electorate with many young people—38 per cent of my electorate is aged under 30—and I want to talk about the fact that there are a number of measures in this budget that will directly benefit people in that cohort.

I talk to people in the community and I receive correspondence and emails, and I know that one measure that has resonated in my electorate and been very meaningful to people is student debt relief. HECS, from now on, will be calculated in a way where, instead of being based solely on CPI, it will be indexed based on the wage price index or CPI—whichever is the lower amount. This will take a lot of the edge off the indexation of HECS debt and is a very important measure. This will prevent increases of the type that we saw last year, when CPI was over seven per cent. This measure will be backdated to June 2023. What was particularly meaningful for me is that this measure alone will benefit over 25,000 people in Fraser. This is a very significant measure that will not remove but reduce the impact of a particular barrier to participation in higher education for those in more vulnerable situations. So that's a very significant measure, which, as I said, I've talked to many people in my electorate about and which resonates with them.

Another one is prac payments: $319 a week for students during their placement studying important courses like nursing, teaching and social work. Unpaid placements, again, can be a particular barrier for those who want to follow particular career paths. We know that nursing, teaching and social work are careers that underpin our care economy and are particularly important for supporting many people in our society by providing critical social services. These prac payments will provide an incredibly important support for people looking to undertake these careers and will help us to boost numbers looking to undertake these careers. Health care and social assistance is, by employment, the largest industry in my electorate. It employs something in the order of 13 per cent of the labour force in Fraser. So these prac payments are going to make a big difference in encouraging more people to move into the vitally important sectors.

The next thing that I want to talk about is fee-free TAFE and also training and the skills side of our economy more generally. When we talk about skills, apprenticeships and TAFE, we talk about individual stories, about giving people opportunities, about giving people the beginning of their careers and about people on the first rung of the ladder of opportunity. But we are also talking, at a macro level, about fixing up many of the supply-side blockages of our economy. This is an instance where we're talking both about the individual and giving people opportunities and about macroeconomic reform where we are fixing up supply-side blockages in a way that will put downward pressure on inflation and also put our economy in the position that it needs to be in in the longer run by developing the industries of the future.

The Albanese Labor government is investing $90.6 million to boost the number of skilled workers in the construction and housing sectors. These are really important careers that have very long-term futures, but, as I said, they are also critical to the supply-side challenges in our economy. We know that housing affordability is a key economic and social challenge for our economy. It is vitally important that we bring more people into the supply side of the housing sector. We're also seeing 20,000 additional fee-free TAFE and VET places for skilled construction and housing workers, to create secure and well-paid jobs that will help us to reach our housing targets.

More generally, we are seeing hundreds of thousands of fee-free TAFE places across a wide range of sectors. This is critical to young people in my electorate. As I said, it will give them the first step on the ladder. It will give them, often, their first opportunity in the workforce. It will also fix a lot of the broader supply-side challenges our economy is facing.

We're also doing a great deal to support more people going into apprenticeships. We're increasing both the payments that go to individuals and the payments that go to employers. I was recently at an event on behalf of the Minister for Skills and Training, Brendan O'Connor. It was at a provider, MEGT, in my electorate. MEGT were celebrating their 700,000th apprentice—a remarkable achievement. But what we see is: the government's work in partnering with organisations like that and providing opportunities for young people to undertake apprenticeships is absolutely critical. It's absolutely critical for those individuals to get opportunities, but it is also critical for our broader economy.

Finally, there are the tax cuts, which will benefit every taxpayer in our economy but, disproportionately, will benefit young taxpayers—in particular, those who are in that $18,000 to $45,000 earning bracket, who would have received absolutely nothing under the previously calibrated tax cuts put forward by the previous government, but will now receive over $800 a year under the new, amended, stage 3 tax cuts. On average, taxpayers in Fraser will receive $1,500 in tax cuts, but it's that young cohort in particular who will benefit more from the tax cuts as recalibrated in the budget.

I also want to talk about this. In the budget there are the benefits for young people. There are also the benefits for the vulnerable, in all sorts of different ways. I think this is another critical aspect that's worth focusing on, because the responsible, targeted and well-calibrated assistance measures contained in the budget are really critical to providing assistance to those who need it, in a responsible way.

One example is Commonwealth rental assistance. We are seeing a further 10 per cent increase to Commonwealth rental assistance, which builds on the 15 per cent increase last year. This is the first time in a long time that we have seen increases in successive budgets, and we know that this is an area where people are really feeling the pinch. So this is critical for people in my electorate.

There's also the energy rebate. That will obviously benefit young people, the cohort I just talked about, but will also benefit people who are vulnerable, people on low incomes and people who are feeling the pinch more generally. A $300 rebate will particularly benefit those on benefits and on low incomes. Also, though, it's being provided as a subsidy—in a way that will put downward pressure on prices.

Another aspect that I want to talk about is cheaper medicines. Pensioners will have the PBS cost of $7.70 frozen until July 2029. We are adding more medicines to the PBS. Residents in Fraser have already saved over $1.8 million from cheaper medicines because of our 60-day scripts. This measure is making a real difference to people. And that money is very significant for those on benefits and on low incomes. It's a very significant measure.

I just want to finish off by saying that this is all being achieved in the context of a government that is providing cost-of-living assistance but doing so in a budget that has been crafted in a very responsible way because we want to make sure that fiscal policy and monetary policy are aligned. We've now seen the budget be brought into surplus for the second year in a row, a very significant achievement. It's been a long time since the federal government has achieved that. There is a $9.3 billion surplus forecast for 2023-24, the first time consecutive surpluses have been achieved in almost two decades.

It's really critical to point out that this is being achieved through a very significant shift in the fiscal position relative to where it was when we inherited government. The budget position is forecast to improve by a massive $215 billion over the six years to 2027-28 compared to where it would have been on the fiscal position that we inherited. You just need to look at the position last year, with a $20 billion surplus, relative to tens of billions of dollars of deficit.

This is being achieved by banking a very high proportion of the fiscal uplift that we've seen, and that fiscal uplift is being achieved largely through healthier workforce numbers, through higher participation rates, through lower unemployment and through higher wage numbers. To some degree, it's also due to higher resources prices, but most of that fiscal uplift is due to a stronger labour market. We are banking a very high proportion of that. Critically, we're banking a much higher proportion of that fiscal uplift than those opposite did when they were in government and, indeed, than the Howard government did when it was in office. This is putting downward pressure on inflation right now because our fiscal position is stronger with consecutive surpluses. It also means that the debt bill is tens of billions of dollars less over the upcoming decade because we're banking that fiscal uplift.

So we're seeing fiscal and monetary policy working hand in hand, and this is being reinforced. In testimony that the House Standing Committee on Economics, the committee that I chair, received from the RBA, they reinforced the fact that fiscal and monetary policy are working together. We don't see this in every advanced economy. This is not something to be taken for granted. This is something that actually requires hard work. It requires finding savings. It requires banking the fiscal uplift. These are not decisions that are automatic. In fact, these are decisions that didn't happen under the previous government. In the previous government's final budget, zero dollars in savings were identified. Under this government, there have been tens of billions.

The fiscal position is not something that just happens automatically. It takes hard work. It takes tough decisions. For me, as a representative of an electorate where there are many vulnerable people—many people on low incomes, many people on benefits and many young people—the fact that we've been able to achieve this while also providing those cohorts with support is incredibly important. That's why I'm so pleased to support this budget. It's a budget which not only provides support but is fiscally responsible.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to talk about the budget and Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025, although it is a tough conversation to have because we need to be realistic and understand that, despite the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and those opposite talking about how Australians have never had it better and about how lucky they are, the reality is the Australian people are struggling through the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory. All the data's showing this, whether it's insolvencies being up for small businesses or retail numbers being down. Everything is getting harder for the Australian people. Your bills are up 12 per cent for energy and 10-plus per cent for food. Rents are up by double digits. Everything's going up. Real wages over the two years of this government have gone backwards. The Australian people are struggling every day. They know it every time they put petrol in their car. They know it every time a bill comes in or they go to the supermarket.

In the biggest cost-of-living crisis in Australia's history, at a time when families are stretched as never before, what is the solution that this Prime Minister, this government and this Treasurer come up with? Fifteen dollars a week, starting on 1 July. Fifteen dollars a week for the Australian people was their big announcement in February this year, which they've talked about for four or five months, to solve all the problems the Australian people had.

They then worked out, after four or five months, that that wasn't enough and that they needed to do more. It took them six months to work this out. So what was the other solution they had to the challenges the Australian people have? Energy bill relief: $75 a quarter for 12 months, or $300 over 12 months. That's the second solution to the challenges the Australian people have that this government has proposed. Could you have a more out-of-touch prime minister, treasurer and government? It shows.

The Treasurer is happy in question time to talk with pride about how he's been in 18 budget lock-ups. He thinks it's a good thing that he's been in this place in budget lock-ups for 18 years. The Prime Minister's been here since 1996. Having tenure here is nothing against the Prime Minister, but it shows that the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and the economics team combined have not spent one day in business. They have not spent one day having to look at their cash flow and work out how they're going to pay their workers. They have not had the challenge of looking at their personal budget and working out how they're going to make ends meet—how they're going to feed their kids and take them to sport—and that makes a difference when people are struggling. When you don't have that understanding, that's when you think $15 a week and $75 a quarter are going to solve the challenges for the Australian people.

But it's even worse than that. They're so out of touch. If you're a single mum living in a rental, you'll get $300 from the government. If you're fortunate enough to own and live in five properties, you'll get a $1,500 rebate from this government. So $1,500 of taxpayer money will go to a person that owns and lives in five homes, but, if you're a single mum struggling in one home, you get $300. Yet this government thinks that's fair. They think that's equitable. It's just another example of how out of touch this government is.

What they're looking to do—and they're doing it poorly—is to treat the symptoms of the cost-of-living crisis. They're not treating the cause, and the cause of this crisis is inflation. We saw yesterday that the monthly number for inflation has gone up to 3.6 per cent. It's two years into this government's term, and inflation is over a percentage point above the midpoint of the target band. The Prime Minister, the Treasurer and those opposite will try to spin it and talk about global factors, but two years in—as the Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, said herself—this inflation is homegrown. This inflation is a result of the decisions of this Prime Minister and this Treasurer. They're making decisions that make inflation worse.

They're also not actively working to bring inflation down. At best, this Treasurer talks about a neutral budget. Economist Warren Hogan said today:

Now we are at a point where we are living in hope that inflation will go away, rather than making serious policy decisions to get rid of it.

So that's what the Australian people have: a Prime Minister and a Treasurer who are crossing their fingers and hoping that inflation will go down, because they don't have any answers to the economic challenges we face. We know they don't have any answers to the national security challenges we face. This is an out-of-touch government that's continuing to make poor decisions and is not prepared to make tough decisions.

The sad part—the worst part about this—is that it's the Australian people that suffer. It's the Australian people that are paying the price every week, and you know it. You know it when you go to the supermarket. You know it when you get petrol from the bowser. This Prime Minister when he was the opposition leader had the gall to criticise the then Prime Minister when petrol was at $1.70. It is now consistently over $2 and sometimes as high as $2.30, and you don't hear a word about it from this Prime Minister. That one example sums up the hypocrisy, the lack of authenticity of this Prime Minister. He's happy to talk about petrol and blame the Prime Minister when it's $1.70, but when it's $2.30 a litre and he's in charge and has the ability to make changes there's silence, nothing, because he doesn't have answers to the challenges we face.

This Prime Minister is a creature of politics. He loves politics. He loves spin. But politics and spin don't help the Australian people. Let's use that example of the former government and the increase in petrol prices. What did the former government do? They cut the excise in half in a temporary and targeted measure to provide relief to the Australian people. So the Prime Minister is very quick to criticise others, but he doesn't have any solutions to the challenges we face.

It's not only on a national level that he's failing many communities. He's failing my community on a localised level as well. Phone communications is one of the most important issues in my electorate. We have a beautiful combination of suburban areas, National Parks and farmland going out into regional areas, but phone communications can be tough. This government in the budget has announced the conclusion of the Mobile Blackspot Program. The budget papers confirm that funding for the Mobile Blackspot Program ceases in 2026-27, with zero dollars allocated for 2027-28. The government has also allocated no funding in the 2027-28 budget for the Better Connectivity Program for regional and rural Australia or the Peri-Urban Mobile Program.

These programs were put in place by the former coalition government. This government was happy to use the program to make sure that 80 per cent of funding from the last round went to Labor-held or marginal seats. They were happy to use that round of funding for political needs. But they're now going to cut that program for my community and many other regional and peri-urban communities. Let's understand what we're talking about. It's not an abstract concept. This program delivered phone towers for my community in East Warburton, Steeles Creek, McMahons Creek, Mount Evelyn, Reefton, Menzies Creek and Silvan and two towers in Chum Creek. This is making a difference to our community every day, but also, most importantly, it's a vital lifeline in emergencies. The Yarra Ranges council area that I represent, the electorate of Casey, is one of the most disaster-prone areas in the country, whether it's the Black Saturday bushfires, floods or storms. Disasters and emergencies, unfortunately, are a way of life for our community, but we know that reliable communications are a crucial part of our plan for survival. This government has ripped that funding from our community.

They've also ripped funding from the Stronger Communities Program, which has been axed. This is a program that delivers for sporting clubs and for communities all across the Yarra Ranges and electorate of Casey. Over $1 million has been delivered to community groups over eight years to help them do what they need to do across sporting clubs, community groups and CFAs. I have two examples of how important this program is, but this government have decided to cut this program.

The Yarra Glen Fire Brigade were able to purchase three new thermal-imaging cameras through this grants program. I had the opportunity to visit Bill Boyd, the captain, and some of the volunteers at the CFA to discuss what the cameras were going to do and the difference they were going to make. These thermal-imaging cameras are going to keep our volunteers safe. They allow them, from well away, to have a look at a dangerous area, to identify the hotspots that can't be seen by the naked eye and to make sure they're prepared to mitigate those circumstances. They also allow them to identify bodies, if required, in some situations. This funding has been ripped from our community by this government.

Here is another example. The Kallista Village Market, unfortunately, had to close down during COVID. But a group of volunteers, led by Dr Miki and others, rallied around to get the Kallista township group back up and running and bring the village market back to life, and I had the honour of being there for its reopening. They were able to purchase marquees, audiovisual equipment—microphones, speakers—that they wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise to get the market back up and going. It builds community spirit, it supports small businesses that come to the market to sell their wares, and it brings tourists into Kallista to continue to strengthen that community. This is another community group that won't have access to this program moving forward because of the decisions of this government.

This government talk a lot about community, but they just don't understand the regional and rural communities of Casey, of Victoria, of the country. It's a government that continues to make poor decisions at a national level and at a local level. It's a government that is prepared to politicise mobile blackspot towers.

Of the towers that the government announced for Victoria in the last round, 100 per cent went to Labor held seats. Eighty per cent of them across the country went to Labor or marginal seats during the last election. The hypocrisy of this government is staggering. As I've said throughout this speech, it is the poor decisions and the weak leadership of this Prime Minister that is leaving the communities of Casey and the communities of Australia abandoned. The government do not have any answers to the challenges we face, and they have left the Australian people abandoned.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Budgets are important. Each year when they are handed down the nation waits with interest to see what's in them. They are important because they set the foundations for the future, they address the immediate needs of the nation, they lay out the government's priorities and values and, importantly, they influence medium- and long-term economic outcomes.

Let me say that stabilising the economy, ensuring that both the Australian people and Australian businesses have a stable environment in which to operate, is incredibly important in trying to secure our future. Likewise, the opposition's budget response is equally important because, as the alternative government for the nation, the budget reply spells out the priorities and values of the opposition. Labor's 2024-25 budget was responsible, fair and visionary. Importantly, right now, at a time of so much global economic uncertainty, the budget seeks to not only lower interest rates and inflation but also ensure that our employment levels continue to rise and that unemployment remains at the level it currently is.

In contrast, the opposition leader's budget response was shallow. It was filled with empty cliches, and was lacking in detail or thoughtfulness. I hear members opposite criticise the Albanese Labor government's 2024-25 budget, but I hear very, very little in the way of detailed alternative strategies for the nation. I hear the general rhetoric that we always hear, as we've just heard from the previous speaker, but I don't hear the detailed response that the Australian people need to understand just what it is that the coalition would do if they were elected at the next election. That is important because this is a country where we value our democracy, and the democracy arises because people want to know the differences between the various parties, what they stand for and what it is that they will do.

No government ever has the money to do everything that is needed, but every government has the ability and the responsibility to do the most and the best with what they've got. Global insecurity and climate change—both of which have major consequences for the nation and our world—are matters that individual governments have very limited control over, yet most of the priority matters for people across Australia, which the government seeks to respond to in the 2024-25 budget, have their origins in global insecurity or climate change. Cost-of-living expenses, which, I accept, are causing financial stress for many Australians and which the government's 2024-25 budget responds to, are largely driven by global events. Not surprisingly, cost-of-living support was a priority in Labor's 2024-25 budget with a number of direct and indirect assistance measures. The most significant of these, of course, is the Albanese government's stage 3 tax cuts with every Australian taxpayer—all 13.6 million of them—receiving a tax cut. In the Makin electorate, 90 per cent of income tax payers will get a bigger tax cut than they would have otherwise received from the coalition. Importantly, the 2.9 million taxpayers across Australia who earn between $18,000 and $45,000—and these are some of the people who are struggling the most and who would have received absolutely nothing under the coalition government—will, under Labor, receive a tax cut. This is a government that has a social conscience.

The $300 energy relief payment for every household will provide some assistance in paying energy bills around the country, as will the $325 for the one million small businesses that will be eligible for the same relief. The maximum rate of rent assistance will increase by a further 10 per cent on top of the 15 per cent increase that commenced in September last year. There will be a one-year freeze on the maximum co-payment of PBS prescriptions and a five-year freeze for pensioners and other concession card holders. We are continuing the freeze on deeming rates for a further 12 months, and I know that that will directly impact many of those in our older population. We are cutting student debt for around three million Australians, including 19,648 in the Makin electorate, and capping the HELP indexation rate to the lower of CPI or the wage price index. There will also be a new prac payment of $319.50 a week for eligible students.

There will be an additional 24,100 home-care packages. As all members who have been here for some time would know, home-care packages matter to families. They make a difference to the lives of the individual families that receive them. We know that, for pretty much the whole time during which the coalition government was in office, this was an area screaming out for more assistance. I still regularly speak to people who have been approved for a home-care package but simply can't get one because they're not available. This additional 24,000 packages will make a huge difference to meeting that need.

Of course, there is much more to the 2024-25 budget than cost-of-living relief. An additional $477 million has been allocated to extra support for Australia's 340,000 veterans, 4,860 of whom live in Makin. I want to focus on this for a moment, because I speak with the veteran community in my electorate on a regular basis. So, $220 million of that delivers funding to implement simplified and harmonised veteran compensation legislation, delivering on the first recommendation of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. It is a much needed step in responding to defence and veteran suicides. And $186 million will go towards employing another 141 staff, in addition to the 400 or 500 that have already been employed by this government, to make claims processing easier and to fix up the mess and backlog of claims left by the last coalition government.

Again, when I speak to veterans, that is one of the most important areas for them, because the frustration that is being relayed back to me about their interaction with the department and the delays and times that they have to wait in order to have their claims processed is really a concern to them. I'm pleased to see that we've not only employed 500 staff to date but are employing another 141 to ensure that those applications are processed in a timely manner. Labor is indeed responding to the voices of our veterans. But, again, it is doing it in a responsible, step-by-step way.

The second area I want to focus on is housing, because, again, we often hear the debate about housing both here in this chamber and throughout the community. I do not deny that there is some real housing stress out there in the community, as reported daily by various commentators and in the media. The reality is that both rents and housing costs are increasing, as are interest rates. The fact is that rental and housing costs and interest rates were all on the upward march when Labor was elected in 2022. Coalition members opposite don't ever seem to acknowledge that. The trend was already there—and it was there because of the nine years of neglect in so many areas relating to housing. So, by the time Labor came into office, certainly things continued to rise.

I also point out that the largest increase in housing costs in this country occurred in 2021. It wasn't after Labor took office; it was before. From there, housing costs have continued to rise, and I accept that. The most effective way of dealing with the housing crisis is to increase housing supply. There are lots of other good ideas out there, and everybody talks about them and puts them on the table. But the reality is that if we want to stabilise the housing market, if we want to bring down rental prices, we have to increase supply. That is the simplest and most effective way of doing it. To do that, we need to build more houses, and Labor has committed an additional $6.2 billion in this budget, taking our total housing package to $32 billion since we've come to office.

The reality is that building houses can't be done overnight either. It's something that will take time—and it will take time because of, again, their neglecting to get the number of tradespeople trained up in this country and because we have to go through the process of getting infrastructure built, allotments carved out and so on where land is available. So $1 billion of the money allocated in the budget will go directly into building the infrastructure that is needed for those new homes and into social housing. To help with the trades shortages, 15,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places in construction will be funded, as well as 5,000 pre-apprenticeship places.

Again, this is the sort of planning that should have been done years ago. If it had been, we wouldn't have these skills shortages today, and if we didn't have these skills shortages then the prices of tradespeople that people have to bear in the market today would not be exorbitant. But that's where we're at, and we have to deal with the situation we're confronted with.

The coalition's simplistic response to Australia's housing crisis is to simply cut migration—and can I say, that is a simplistic response. Even if it was implemented right now, it wouldn't fix the problem, because it is a problem that we are confronted with right here and now, regardless of what might happen into the future with migration. But, nevertheless, that's the really simplistic response we heard from the Leader of the Opposition in his budget reply. Managing and reforming Australia's migration system is important, particularly in planning for the future, but closing the borders will not fix the housing demands of today. Moreover, it was under the last coalition government's watch that the Australian population grew by three million whilst nothing was done about housing supply. Australia's population in 2013, when the last coalition government came to office, was 23 million. When they left office in 2022, it was 26 million. That was a three-million-person increase in this country, and that includes the two years or so when, because of COVID, our borders were closed. The reality is that Labor was left to deal with that population increase when it came to office.

The last matter I have time to address in my remarks—quite frankly, there are a number of other matters I would have dearly loved to address—is to do with our health services. Again, across the nation, our health services are under stress, and that applies to every state that I get feedback from. Good health services are important for every Australian, and the Albanese government has continued to increase health funding, with another $2.8 billion in this budget, which will strengthen Medicare, make medicines cheaper, expand Medicare urgent-care clinics to an additional 29 sites, index the Medicare rebate on pathology tests, expand mental health services and also fund several women's and Indigenous health programs throughout the country. That's just part of what it will do, but it provides a snapshot of the priorities and values of this government.

I'm pleased to see that in Makin, the area I represent, there will be a Medicare urgent-care clinic. This is one of the 29 that will be funded under this budget in addition to the 58 that have already been established. That clinic is important to my electorate because within my electorate is the Modbury Hospital, and the Modbury Hospital outpatients department is under severe stress. It's under stress because people use the hospital because they can't get urgent care at normal GP clinics after hours. So the whole intent of the Medicare urgent-care clinic is to provide that service after hours and, in doing so, take pressure off the Modbury Hospital, which will then be able to deal with, I guess, the more urgent cases that require hospitalisation. I thank Minister Mark Butler and state health minister Chris Picton, who came out to my electorate only last week and made that announcement about the new Medicare urgent-care clinic.

In closing, this is a budget that is responsible, it's a budget that's been sensibly thought through, it's a budget that sets out a plan for the future and it's a budget that I believe shows that the responsibility of addressing the nation's economy rests with the government of the day, and that's exactly what this government seeks to do with this budget.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Nfp'—does that mean 'not-for-profit'? Well, if you google it and go to the Australian Taxation Office website, that's the first mention, talking about tax concessions and the like for those wanting to set up a not-for-profit. But, unfortunately, when you read Budget Paper No. 2 and turn to page 56, under the heading 'Murray-Darling Basin Plan—continuing delivery', 'nfp' refers to 'not for publication', and it's 'nfp' in 2024-25, 2025-26, 2026-27 and 2027-28. It says 'nfp' in the lines relating to the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Next to 'Total payments', there are dashes—dash, dash, dash, dash, dash. Do you get where I'm coming from? It's not for publication. Why? If it is so important to the Australian Labor Party and, apparently, to Australian people, why, in Budget Paper No. 2, would the water buybacks be 'nfp'? It is because Labor don't want you, the people of Australia, to know how much they are going to spend on ruining river communities, on destroying those once-vibrant regional towns and cities.

I live in the Murray-Darling Basin, and over and over again we see television advertisements paid for by taxpayer money from the department of climate change and others talking about 'our plan to protect, restore and better manage the Murray-Darling Basin for Australia's prosperity—a thriving, sustainable Murray-Darling.' I could go on and on but I won't. Well, that might all be well and good for those bureaucrats—I'll come back to those a little bit later—who sit on their shiny seats in Canberra, who think that our farmers are destroying the welfare of our river system and the livelihoods of those who live in the Murray-Darling Basin. Far from it. Unfortunately, our ministers are being led by the nose all too often by those public servants—we're going to get another 36,000 of them apparently—who very rarely get out of the bright shiny lights of Canberra and that is a shame. So what we end up with is 'NFP' in the budget paper when it refers to water buybacks. That could be code for anything but it is code for spending a whole lot of taxpayers' money on buying water back out of the system, just like earlier this year when we saw $205 million for 26 gigalitres a year. That 26 gigalitres a year is being used by farmers. That 26 gigalitres a year is growing food and fibre to feed and clothe Australians and many others besides. In the budget paper, it's 'NFP', because the government doesn't want our country people knowing how much they're going to spend. It will come with a very, very large cheque book.

As soon as people see the Commonwealth waving a very large wad of cash, there will be farmers who will sell their water and those farmers will leave those river communities whether they're in Deniliquin, Griffith or Hillston or Tocumwal; I could go on and on. But they will leave those irrigation and farming districts of the southern Riverina, the Riverina and right throughout the Murray-Darling Basin. It will have such an impact upon those communities, because the hairdresser will have fewer customers, the school will have fewer kids, the families will diminish in size, then the teacher numbers will reduce. The state school system will reduce the number of teachers in those classrooms. It will have an effect on the little cafes and coffee shops. It will have an effect right throughout, not just a rippling effect but a tidal wave effect in those smaller communities, and the smaller they are, the least they can afford to lose water out of their system. It's such a shame, but this is a government which shows scant regard for our agricultural communities.

Today is a day of shame—it truly is—because today legislation went into the House of Representatives to shut down the live sheep trade. The Nationals, the coalition, sensibly, wanted to send it to a committee for further investigation work to be done, for further research. No, the government didn't want this. They just want to ram this through, like they do everything. No doubt, they will gag the debate.

I'm actually pleased that I can speak on the appropriations bills this year, because last year we weren't given that opportunity, because Labor just cut it off. Of course, the coalition is never going to stop the appropriations bills because this is supply. I won't say 'confidence' because there is not too much confidence in the government at this time. But it does provide for Labor to have the opportunity to spend money on the sorts of things that it has a mandate to do. But when that mandate extends to NFP, they are not going to tell us and that is subterfuge. When it extends to $107 million to stop farmers doing what they have done for generations in Western Australia—that is, produce some of the finest sheep in the world and send them via ships, via boats, with the exporter supply chain assurance system in place to ensure that the sheep animal husbandry and welfare standards are first class, world class, internationally best standard.

And yet, what we will see now, when we ban the live sheep trade—and we will—is that trade being taken over by countries who do not have the same welfare standards for their sheep. We saw what happened in June 2011 when, as a kneejerk response to a television program on the ABC—haven't they been in a bit of trouble lately!—about the Indonesian cattle trade. That had a marked effect on the cattle sales in Wagga Wagga. Now Wagga Wagga is a long way from where those cattle were, but there was a fear, and markets are run by fear, that so many of those longhorn cattle were then going to come south because there weren't going to be the export markets for them in Indonesia, so goodness knows what will happen when the live sheep trade is phased out.

I did Paul Murray Live on Sunday night, and I do thank Sky News for coming to Parkes to promote the very best of what is in that Central West town. After the show, a young farmer pulled me up, bailed me up, in the Railway Hotel and he was vociferous in his criticism of Minister Watt. He was absolutely apoplectic about why the sheep trade was being stopped. He's a young bloke who's starting out, who's starry-eyed and bushy-tailed and looking forward to a career in agriculture. He knows, just like so many people in the Riverina and Central West do because it's a great sheep-producing area, that this decision by Labor will affect the price at the saleyards.

Wagga Wagga and Forbes are the top 2 livestock-selling centres in the Southern Hemisphere. They're No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. Sheep, cattle, livestock are big part of our local economy. We don't need to have the sheep price plunge. It was bad enough last November, without being affected by the live export trade, when sheep were selling in Wagga Wagga for a dollar a head because of all sorts of influences and outcomes. We don't need our farmers to work for nothing. None of the public servants here in Canberra would work for nothing, but they're the ones who are making the calls and ministers, being led by the nose, are following them.

Just last week, I had the good fortune to have Senator Deb O'Neill in Cowra to talk about the government funding for the swimming pool, which is being replaced at long last. It's been in operation for 60 years and Cowra deserves a new swimming pool—no question. The mayor, Ruth Fagan, was there. She's doing a good job as the new mayor; she's taken over from Bill West.

I've got respect for Senator Deb O'Neill, I do, but she had this to say: 'Since coming to government, Labor has made a really big effort to ensure that probity in all the decision-making about how funding is allocated is enlivened by our processes. I was actually part of the panel, which was a multiparty panel, and we had Independents in there and people from all over the country. And while I'm happy to endorse anything of merit that you put forward from Cowra council, I would never be able to assess anything from within New South Wales, so that is the process. I looked at literally hundreds of applications from all around the country and on merit. Those went through an EOI process and into the next phase where'—and this is the important line—'the department made an arm's-length decision about meritorious applications.' The department!

What I do find is that so many ministers, and you only have to look at the under-the-pump minister for immigration at the moment—who is running this country? Is it the bureaucrats? Bureaucrats who will never have their name on a ballot paper, who are faceless people. And while I've got respect for the process and I've got respect for public servants—I do. I was the Deputy Prime Minister for more than three years and Secretary Steven Kennedy and Secretary Simon Atkinson did a wonderful job in my portfolio area, as did the public servants under them, including Pip Spence, now the head of CASA. I have every respect for the role that they play, but it's not up to the public servants to run the country. It's the government. We are in a Westminster system. We've got a cabinet process. They shouldn't be, as public servants, deciding where regional funding is spent. The minister should have the final say because it's the minister who takes advice from, in this case, her members and members opposite—members across the aisles.

The difficulty with that process is that Labor always carried on a treat about probity et cetera when it came to regional funding, yet all those regional programs—and the member for Bendigo would agree with me here, no doubt; the member for Corangamite would too—no, you will. Trust me. Wait until you hear what I have to say. They are totally oversubscribed. Regional members, you'll get a program worth, let's say, $250 million and you'll get $1½ billion worth of applications. So you can't satisfy everybody. You can't please everybody.

Then, of course, it comes down to the question, 'Where are we going to spend the money?' As a minister, I endeavoured to do it in as fair a way as possible. But let me tell you: whilst you took advice from the bureaucrats, they didn't get the final say. The fact that Deb O'Neill couldn't have, wouldn't have or didn't have a say on those projects within New South Wales—because she's a New South Wales senator—I do find extraordinary. I did say I have respect for Deb O'Neill. She's actually a good friend of mine.

Well, she's a duty senator for Riverina and she was part of that process, member for Bendigo. But I find it extraordinary that we've got the bureaucrats making decisions, allegedly, in the immigration space. We've got bureaucrats making the calls on which regional towns will get funding and which regional towns won't.

Then, of course, we come to the communications area, where the shadow minister for communications, David Coleman, stood in the dispatch box just on Tuesday and talked about page 74 of the Auditor-General's report, saying that 'in Victoria 100 per cent of the funds'—this is round 6 of the Mobile Black Spot Program—'went to marginal seats and 100 per cent of them are in'—wait for it—'Labor electorates'. Who would have thought! Then he was talking about New South Wales, again saying that '100 per cent of the funds allocated went to marginal seats and 100 per cent of those went'—where do you reckon they went?—'to Labor electorates'. This is shameful. That's what the shadow minister for communications said. The government must apologise, and I agree with him.

This was totally a missed opportunity by Labor in the budget—a missed opportunity to protect our farmers, to support our farmers and to applaud our farmers for what they do. Why Labor is spending NFP money—that's code for hundreds of millions of dollars to buy back water to stop food production—is beyond belief. Why Labor is shutting out the sheep trade and having $107 million spent on that is appalling. And why Labor isn't addressing the cost-of-living issue, which began on their watch, is nothing short of abrogating their responsibility as a good government, but 'good government' and 'Labor' do not belong in the same sentence.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise and say a few words about the recent federal budget and not just how it impacts my community but how it impacts all regional communities. When we talk about infrastructure, when we talk about grants and when we talk about funding going to the regions, the one thing that I am very proud of in this budget is that it confirms the Labor government's approach towards transparency and towards ensuring that there is fair and equitable funding distributed across our regions.

The one thing that the previous speaker forgot to mention in his rant about when he was minister and how he allocated funding was that, yes, he did make the final call on where a lot of expenditure went but it went to electorates that were National green and Liberal blue. I am a regional MP; I've been the proud federal member for Bendigo for the past ten years. And, in his time as minister, despite meeting, despite lobbying and despite having multiple groups approach him, their applications went in and not one of their projects got funded, because we are considered a red seat. Yet, the moment that Labor came to government and restored some integrity and transparency to the grants process—surprise, surprise!—our electorate did well.

I am proud to stand here and say that the City of Greater Bendigo has been successful in receiving about $2 million to transform the Heathcote Civic Precinct. It has been awarded $2 million through the Growing Regions Program. This program was confirmed in the federal budget to continue going forward. Tomorrow, we will have our official announcement and launch of this project, where the city will step out how it will spend that funding in redeveloping and transforming the civic precinct. I'll have the opportunity to sit down with the mums and dads and young kids who are part of the story time which is run through the library. At the moment, it's kind of hidden down the back, and I'm really looking forward to the grant being able to open up that space. Heathcote is one of those towns that's slightly out of Bendigo but is part of the City of Greater Bendigo. And it's had a pretty tough couple of years. Every time we get big rain and then the flooding that occurs in our region, Heathcote gets cut off. So this project will be welcomed. It will really help to restore quite a bit of civic pride.

Last week, there was funding through the Growing Regions Program towards the Bendigo Foodshare Food Hub redevelopment. The state government had already contributed $1.4 million; a number of local businesses and not-for-profit organisations had come on board; and now the federal government has come on board with this final funding piece to help to make sure that this project is done properly. Bendigo Foodshare ensures that all of our welfare agencies receive the food that they need to help people who are experiencing food insecurity and food poverty—and, unfortunately, that need is growing. Bendigo Foodshare do a remarkable job. They have a team of 250 volunteers. They are central in ensuring that all of our food-relief agencies, as well as schools and any others who are distribution points, have the food that they need. It was wonderful to walk through the work that has been done—and not just with Bendigo Food Share. I also want to give a shout-out to the architects involved, Y2 Architecture, and also to Fairbrother, who are building this project, on the way in which they've brought businesses on board to see this project become a reality. And I know that this new infrastructure will be welcomed.

These are just two of the projects that have received the backing of this government since we've been elected. Community infrastructure is vital to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our growing communities.

Bendigo is one of those electorates which, whilst named after a big regional city, is made up of many small towns as well. The Bendigo electorate is a growing area that has a lot of potential and opportunity. We have a growing manufacturing sector, with not just food manufacturing but also advanced manufacturing.

Recently, I had the great opportunity to go out and catch up with the team at Hofmann Engineering. Our Bendigo facility is their largest manufacturing facility on the east coast. Most people would know Hofmann because of the work that they do in WA. In my meeting with them, I learned about their journey. They are transitioning from a lot of heavy metal manufacturing for the mining sector, the coal sector, into more renewable energy projects and other projects. And they have that capacity. They have this great story about how they recruit locally and grow their own, working with our schools and our universities to recruit local people to become part of their team. It is great to see how they are modernising and innovating and are recruiting locally.

There are some other great announcements that have happened in my electorate recently. I'll tell you of one—a sad story that has become a positive story—and that is the support for our dragons at our Golden Dragon Museum. Many might remember that I've spoken at length in this place about the beautiful history of our Chinese imperial dragons in Bendigo. Loong is the oldest intact processional dragon known to be left in the world. He was at the Federation parade, so he has existed and paraded in Bendigo for longer than this place has existed—for longer than we've had a federal parliament and a Commonwealth of Australia. That is how significant Loong is. Sun Loong, which is the longest imperial dragon, paraded for a good chunk of time in our electorate. It too is a much loved icon of our region.

Unfortunately, these two dragons as well as others were damaged recently after vandalism occurred. People from Melbourne came up and attacked a number of cultural and religious institutions and artefacts. I stand here with my community to condemn that vandalism and to say, without any shadow of a doubt, that it is not acceptable for people to drive into a region and just attack religious, community or cultural artefacts. I want to say that we all stand together. We have our multifaith, interfaith council, and whether it is people at the Great Stupa and at the Catholic Cathedral or our veteran community and the graves that were vandalised, this kind of attack is not on. I do want to recognise the leadership of our community in coming together to say, 'This was not us, and we stand together.'

We have a big clean-up job to do. The fact that someone could come and attack so many cultural and religiously significant artefacts in our town has shocked people. I really want to acknowledge, out of this horrible moment, the leadership in our community and the people coming together. I want to thank all of those involved. To help with the work that is now going on, our government has announced $100,000 to help restore and repair our dragons.

The budget itself is a responsible budget. It is something that really will help people in my region and ease the cost of living. There are tax cuts for every worker in my electorate. There are 66,000 people in Bendigo who will receive a tax cut. The $300 energy rebate for all households will make a real difference to people when they pay their energy bills over the winter and summer. There is an increase to the maximum rate of Commonwealth rent assistance—a further 10 per cent. Just over 6,000 households in Bendigo will benefit from this.

We're cutting $3 billion from student debt. There are more than three million Australians with a HECS debts and close to 17,000 in my electorate. I want to acknowledge the people who've spoken to me about this since we announced it and how it will help. These are people who aren't at uni today. These are people my age. These are people in their 30s and 40s who are almost at the end of paying off their HECS debt. They can't believe that they still have a HECS debt because of the nature of our higher education system. I do really welcome a number of the reforms that are in the accord and the changes they will bring going forward.

Another big one at that will benefit people in my electorate is the freezing of PBS medication for the next five years for pensioners and concession card holders, including people on a seniors card. This is real cost-of-living relief that will help people. People have spoken to me about the budget since it was handed down during my various listening posts and at community events I've gone to. They recognise that it's responsible—that they could have had a bit more help, but this was measured, and it's the budget that we need at this time. So I really do want to recognise how the Treasurer has found the right balance in this budget. We are helping where we can, knowing that there's more that we could do, but not wanting to put that pressure on the Reserve Bank around interest rates. I want to commend the budget, and I encourage all those in this place to think about the change that it will make in our communities.

Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A federal budget is a chance for us to see what the government wants to prioritise, what it sees as the future of the country and what it thinks we can do without. This one sums up pretty well this Labor government and, honestly, politics in Australia more broadly. It's a story of tinkering around the edges. It's a story of talking a big game. It's a story of not doing anything to challenge the megawealthy and powerful in this country while desperately trying to get everyone else to believe that our current economic system is working well for them.

Let's break a few things down. We've got a $300 power rebate—nice!—but it's not going to actually solve the long-term issues of price hikes due to mass privatisation and price gouging. We need publicly owned renewable energy where power can be sold cheaply to consumers if we are to have any hope of getting power bills under control. After immense pressure from the community and from the Greens, we have a change to how student loans are indexed. It's still going to leave people with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt when what we need to do is follow the lead of countless other countries around the world by wiping all student debt and making uni free once again. There's over $350 billion for AUKUS while we get massive cuts to the NDIS. There's just shy of $15 billion a year in subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. The 10 Year National Action Plan for LGBTIQA+ Health and Wellbeing has precisely zero dollars allocated to it. There's a $1.30-per-day increase for someone on rent assistance, when average rents have gone up $46 a week and when we should be seeing caps on rent increases and massive winding back of negative gearing.

This budget is bandaid solutions—tinkering around the edges—and it refuses to address the systemic causes of the massive social and economic issues we are all facing in this country. What we need is bold, progressive reform. That looks like having no new coal and gas, fully funding our state schools, getting dental and mental health into Medicare, having publicly owned renewable energy, taxing billionaires and big corporations properly, creating a public developer to build thousands of new homes and funding frontline services, just to name a few. These changes would not only drastically help people with the cost of living but also improve people's mental health and our environment at the same time.

We are at a unique point in our country's history. People's faith in government is falling, poverty is still so high, and young people are losing any hope for a positive future. People from across Australia, particularly young people, are looking for a fresh start. They want a new social contract, a new deal. It is our responsibility to offer them one. We have a chance with every budget to right the wrongs of inequality, of poverty and of environmental degradation, and it's about time we actually do it.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor's 2024-25 budget is delivering for Australians. From cost-of-living relief to women's health and renewable energy, it's all in the budget. It's also a budget that delivers for my community in Canberra, and that's something that we have not seen for a decade, because the previous government did not treat our community with the respect that it deserved or invest in the things that are important, either for our community and the challenges and opportunities we face in the way that all communities do or for our city as a national capital of our nation belonging to all Australians. Just this week, I've had the great pleasure of hosting three ministerial visits in my electorate relating to budget announcements, with the Minister for Small Business, with the Minister for Education and this morning with the Minister for Early Childhood Education. I want to talk more about those later in my speech.

Our government is committed to supporting Australians through the tough time they are facing at the moment. We are actively working to make things fairer and more equitable. Our biggest priority is to ease cost-of-living pressures, and this budget is doing just that while also setting Australia up for the future. Australians are doing it tough right now. We've had a difficult 10 years under a coalition government, which ended with a global pandemic. Across the world, economies are still struggling to know how to deal with the fallout from 2020. But our government is taking charge, and we are ensuring that all Australians experience cost-of-living relief through our policies.

From 1 July this year, every Australian taxpayer will get a tax cut—every single one. That's 13.6 million people around the country. We want Australians to earn more and keep more of what they earn. In my electorate of Canberra, 78,000 people will receive a tax cut. We are also delivering $300 of energy bill relief for every household, meaning 10 million households across the country will receive a $300 rebate on their energy bills. Our government is also committed to helping one million Australians with the cost of rent by increasing the maximum rate of Commonwealth rent assistance by 10 per cent and building on the increase we delivered in last year's budget.

We're also providing more social housing, cheaper medicines and improved housing conditions for remote Indigenous communities. This is building on our commitments from previous budgets for cheaper child care, creating jobs and getting wages moving again. This is a budget that delivers for young people, including those studying at university or TAFE.

Yesterday, it was my great pleasure to join the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, at the University of Canberra, in their Clinical Education and Research Centre, to meet with nursing students about the changes to university prac placements. I want to thank Deputy Vice-Chancellor Michelle Lincoln and her team, and the nursing students Brandon, Anna and Xanthe, who we met yesterday, for having us.

In the budget, the Treasurer announced that the Commonwealth would be establishing a new prac payment from July next year. As we all know, practical placements are a compulsory and necessary part of many degree programs. They provide vital experience and training in a student's chosen field, preparing them for their future career. But almost always these pracs are unpaid. This means that students have been expected to turn up to their prac, often full time, and essentially work for free, with no or limited time to work outside of that. This has been a huge barrier to many, even those who are just beginning degrees that they would like to undertake. These placements are for some of the most critically important careers in our community and economy. I'm talking about nursing, midwifery, social work and teaching. These are the areas that will benefit from this new payment.

I remember when I was at university how difficult it was for people needing to go away to a placement in another town or city to balance paying the rent for their current accommodation and their accommodation while they were away. This was also while they were trying to get leave, although most were casual and couldn't take leave from the jobs they were using to support themselves while studying. So this payment is about supporting those students to continue with these really important degrees that they are doing. It was great to talk about this yesterday at the University of Canberra, which is a key training institution in our region for nurses, teachers and social work students. It was great to talk particularly to the nursing students there about their experiences and how this payment would assist people. But this new payment isn't all we're doing in higher education.

The government is also reforming the HECS system. We've all heard from students in our electorates about their legitimate concerns regarding their HECS debts. I understand their concern. HECS debts today are significantly larger than what they were when I studied at uni. Last year, the indexation that was made in line with the consumer price index was really difficult for people. Many saw the debt they'd paid off over the previous year reappear. It wasn't fair. So we've taken the decision to wipe $3 billion off Australians' HECS debts. In my electorate of Canberra this will impact approximately 22,670 students. We've also changed how indexation works so that each year HECS debts will be indexed at the lower of the CPI or the wage price index.

This morning, I had the great pleasure of visiting Goodstart Garran and Assunta and the team there. I have visited this centre many times, but this time I was joined by the Minister for Early Childhood Education, Dr Anne Aly, to talk with the educators there about the work that they do and of course to chat to lots of the children who were starting their day there.

As a mother who currently has one child in early childhood education and another who has been through early childhood education and is now at school, it really is humbling to see the work that the early childhood educators do every day to care for and educate our children and how much this means to families and our community more broadly. This work requires great dedication, skill and patience. It's a really special person that is able to do that job. Most of them that I have spoken to are so passionate and committed to what they do, so it's well beyond time that they received more recognition and better pay for what they do. I was really proud that our budget also included a commitment to increase the wages of early childhood educators. It was great to talk about that this morning with the team at Garran Goodstart and also with Ros Baxter, the CEO of Goodstart Australia.

The government is investing in Australian skills. In Canberra, we're establishing the nation's first ever TAFE centre of excellence, right here at the CIT in Fyshwick. There was already a nation-leading electric vehicle training hub there, but for Canberra to host the very first of the national TAFE centres of excellence is, again, something I cannot imagine would have happened under the previous government and something that is great for not just our city but the region and even nationally. We've had students coming here to acquire those really important skills as we move towards having more electric vehicles on the road and needing the skills to look after those vehicles. This is a total investment of $24.1 million into Canberra which includes not only funding from the ACT government but also, I believe, around $18 million from the federal government to get that up and running. Canberra has one of the highest take-ups of electric vehicles, so that's particularly relevant to our city.

The 2024 budget also delivers for small business. It was fantastic on Monday to join the Minister for Small Business, Julie Collins, to visit the Scott Leggo Gallery in Kingston, one of Canberra's most loved small businesses. It's run by my constituents, Scott and Philippa Leggo. People might be familiar with Scott's magnificent, beautiful landscape photography, which captures not just our city but the nation. You can go there to get a magnificent piece for your wall or smaller gifts, even jigsaws. It's a really great business. It was wonderful to have the minister with me there on Monday to talk to them not only about the pressures they are facing but also about the energy rebate that we're delivering for small business. This is a $325 payment for small businesses to help with their energy costs and it's expected that it will go to 18,000 small businesses across the ACT. It's part of $640 million of targeted support to small businesses in the budget. We're also extending the $20,000 instant asset write-off for small business across the country so they can invest in what they need to make their businesses thrive.

I want to take a moment to talk about the Canberra business community because this is another thing that many people in this place take for granted. We are nation's capital and we house the nation's Public Service, but our business community punches above its weight in terms of innovation. No-one is more passionate about Canberra than our small business community. It really is the small businesses that make Canberra such a wonderful place not only to live but also to visit and they give our city its vibrancy. I'm proud that our government is supporting small businesses in Canberra and around the country.

This is a budget that delivers for Australian women. We're putting women and gender equality at the centre of our economic plan. We want to make women's lives safer, fairer and more equal. When you have more diverse voices, you get better outcomes and that's what this budget delivers. The Albanese government is the first federal government in the nation's history with a majority of women. You can see that in the issues that we talk about and the perspectives that we bring. In the 2024 budget we're bringing the total amount of funding to support women's safety and the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children to over $3.4 billion since our government was elected. This includes $925 million over five years for the permanent Leaving Violence Program to deliver financial support for victim-survivors leaving a violent intimate partner relationship, as well as support services for up to 12 weeks. It includes $44 million in the next financial year to support the national legal assistance partnership and family violence prevention legal services, including additional funding to address community legal sector pay disparity.

We know gender based and sexual violence is an issue on university campuses. To help stop this violence, our government will deliver $19.4 million over two years to establish a national student ombudsman to help to eradicate gender based violence from universities, and $18.7 million over four years to establish a national higher education code to prevent and respond to gender based violence. We have also committed $9.6 million over five years to further support informed policy advice to government to end gender based violence. This includes $4.3 million to further build the evidence base on pathways into and out of perpetration of domestic and sexual violence, and $1.3 million for a rapid review of targeted prevention approaches to violence against women.

We're also delivering $160 million for women's health. Thousands of women around Australia are dealing with complex gynaecological conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis. Our government is committing $49 million to introduce longer consultations for these conditions on Medicare. I also just want to take this opportunity to congratulate the assistant minister for health on the wonderful work she has been doing in this area. Her consultations with women around the country about their experiences in the health system have really opened—what should I say?—a can of worms with women expressing the challenges that they have had in order to be taken seriously and to be diagnosed. It is really shining a light on these issues of which I think I can say all women have had some experience to varying degrees in the health system. The outcome is, of course, commitments like this, to delivering better for women and their health. We're also committing $5.5 million for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to develop a dataset on sexual and reproductive health and $1 million over two years for a miscarriage data scoping study.

I'm running out of time. So which excellent measures should I talk about in the time remaining? I do want to talk about—as I've said, this is a budget for Canberra. But a particularly fantastic announcement for Canberra was $250 million of funding for the Australian Institute of Sport. This is a really important national institution where our athletes train. It was a world leading institution in the way that it brought together multidisciplinary approaches to sport and athletes all in one place. It has been neglected for too long, so I was really proud to join the Prime Minister, the Minister for Sport and my ACT Labor representative colleagues at the AIS to announce that much-needed funding, our government having already committed that the AIS would indeed remain in the nation's capital and have that significance as a national institution.

It's also wonderful that the government has announced further investment into stage 2B of a light rail to Woden and an investment in the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, things that we would never have seen under the previous government. I'm very proud of the budget and that it's a budget that delivers for all Australians, including in Canberra.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My mother was a World War II widow. Her husband, Jack Leonard, was killed in Papua New Guinea in 1943. My sisters never knew their father. My family has lived with this sacrifice and loss all our lives. Jack was one of the over 103,000 Australians who've made that ultimate sacrifice—those who have lost their lives, when Australia has supported our allies in times of conflict, address and attempted oppression. Our service men and women also fought and died so that Australians can be free, tolerant and live in peace in one of the world's greatest democracies—one that believes in the rule of law, in which we have the right to religious freedom. The deeds of those men and women helped define who we are as a nation, and it is a nation worth defending.

Equally, we have to continue to defend our values and way of life to continue to be worthy of the sacrifice made by those who have given their lives and their families. However, I believe that every one of those 103,000 who fought and died in conflict would be as ashamed as I am and disgusted, not only with the divisive growth in antisemitism in Australia but also with the Prime Minister and Labor government's weakness and lack of leadership in dealing with this crisis that has allowed antisemitism to fester and grow in our communities. The Prime Minister has totally failed to provide the moral and political leadership against those who are actively inciting hatred and violence in Australia.

How appalling is it that Jewish people living in Australia have never felt and never been as vulnerable, targeted and intimidated as they are right now? The hate preachers who've been allowed to get away with openly inciting antisemitism; the 'Jew, die' graffiti on a school; the repeated use of antisemitic chants 'from the river to the sea' and 'Intifada', deeply antisemitic terms not called out by the Prime Minister—Peter Dutton is right when he said antisemitism is not just a threat to one segment of our community; it's a threat to Australia's social cohesion and our democratic values. It is appalling that some of the worst antisemitic and hateful intimidation activists are coming from our university campuses, with the tacit support of weak university leaders or worse, Sydney University's Mark Scott openly rewarding antisemitic hate and vilification. Peter Cosgrove got it right recently when he said, 'Hitler would be proud.' After all, that's how bad antisemitism is in Australia. Anybody who is in any doubt needs to take a walk in a Jewish person's shoes. How much longer will Jewish students have to fear for their safety at universities? Again, we've seen nothing but weakness from the Prime Minister on this. The coalition government will cancel the visas of any student protesters involved in spreading antisemitism or supporting terrorism. We will not tolerate racism, antisemitism or public support for Hamas or terrorist organisations.

I am deeply and profoundly ashamed that the Labor government chose, by default, to reward the designated terrorist group Hamas for its barbarous attacks on 7 October by voting for a resolution at the UN granting a unique form of UN membership to the State of Palestine. I was equally ashamed when the NSW Police simply watched the antisemitic protest at the Opera House. However, it pales beside this UN pro-Hamas and anti-Israel decision by the government. It's a decision that ignores the wisdom of Bob Hawke who said, 'If the bell tolls for Israel, it tolls for all mankind.' Labor has totally trashed Australia's historic bipartisan support for Israel—the only liberal democratic country in the Middle East—and Labor's UN decision does not facilitate a two-state solution. As I said, it is a morally bankrupt decision, further compounding the grief and vulnerability of Jewish Australians, whom the Prime Minister has let down. It's a decision that has, by default, rewarded Hamas for those appalling atrocities and the barbarity committed on 7 October—the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust: the utterly barbaric rape, mutilation, torture and murder of 1,200 mostly civilian women, men, children and babies, and the kidnapping of 250 hostages, 130 of whom are still in captivity or dead.

Hamas has made it very clear that it will continue these attacks to annihilate the Jews and repeat those same 7 October attacks. There is absolutely no equivalence between Israel, which is a democratic country, and Hamas, which is a designated terrorist organisation. Israel does have the right to defend itself, but Labor's decision to, by default, support Hamas through the UN vote has undoubtedly severely increased the vulnerability and fears of Jewish Australians. The decision rewards and incites terrorist activity and rewards bullies. I've got no doubt it emboldened campus activists and other activists. It also completely betrayed our traditional allies, the US and the UK—relationships that are going to become even more important in the years ahead. Make no mistake: the Labor government voted against Israel but voted with Russia, China and Iran. That's a shameful and disgraceful decision and one that ignores our history of fighting for democracy, fighting for Australian values and fighting for what is right. It sends a dreadful message that the Labor government stands with those who use violence and intimidation to achieve their goals—certainly not in Australia's national interest or what Australians fought and died for.

Australia's Prime Minister compounded this weakness by refusing to comment on the ICC proposal—weak and, again, totally out of step with our allies. The US unequivocally rejected the ICC's application, reinforcing the strong message that there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. I originally thought that the Prime Minister's weakness exposed him as a commentator and not a decision-maker, but I see now that, on the lack of response to the ICC, not only is he not a decision-maker and not a commentator but he is a spectator, and one who has set Australia on a divisive and destructive path not only with Hamas and antisemitism but also in total failure to stand up for Australia and our defence forces with China—weakness yet again, where he has given in to China's pressure. If you do that, they will simply take another step forward. That 'handsome boy' comment was not a compliment. It showed contempt and a lack of respect for a weak prime minister who failed to stand up for our Royal Australian Navy, HMAS Toowoomba and its divers over the deliberate sonar attacks. He failed to raise this directly with Xi Jinping when he had the opportunity. This is a prime minister who continues to demonstrate weakness with China, with not enough courage to directly raise the tough issues, which is what a prime minister should be doing on behalf of this nation.

But this weak response further emboldened China to show its contempt for Australia and take another step forward with the dangerous and provocative intimidation from the PLA's jet firing flares at a Royal Australian Navy Seahawk. It put the lives of our RAN members at direct risk. They could have been killed. When will Australia's Prime Minister actually stand up for our ADF and for all Australians? As I understand it, no Labor minister at all has spoken directly to their Chinese counterpart about this incident.

So Prime Minister, I've got a question. Would you have supported that UN vote that has by default rewarded Hamas? If the 1,200 women, children, men and babies who were barbarically tortured and murdered on 7 October, the 250 kidnapped by Hamas and the 130 still held hostage or dead were actually Australians—they're people no different to us, and we normally stand up for those in these circumstances—would you still be that cowardly commentator and a weak spectator, rewarding a registered terrorist organisation responsible for the atrocities with a UN vote? If it were Australians on 7 October, how would your government have responded to other countries telling Australia to show restraint in its response? I can tell you exactly what Australians would be demanding of us if the victims and hostages were Australians attacked on Australian soil.

Prime Minister, historically and as we see currently, there are—nationally, globally—critical decisions that need to be made by the government of the day. They are decisions that are far more important than and far outweigh the politics of the day or an upcoming election—where Australia needs strong, capable leadership that makes decisions in the national interest, in Australia's interests, as well as in the interests of our allies. Prime Minister, it is your duty to act in Australia's national interest, to have the courage and conviction to stand up against political interests and pressures from within your own party and put the national interest first. It is the job of a true statesman. That is the tough job of a prime minister.

On this count, Prime Minister, you've failed this nation, and your decision to support, by default, Hamas, China, Iran and Russia at the UN and failure to be strong in controlling the rampant rise of aggressive and escalating anti-Semitism in Australia is an egregious and unforgiveable failure. Talking about the problem does not fix the problem.

Let's not forget that Australia and Israel are historic allies. Remember the extraordinary efforts of our Australian light horsemen at the Battle of Beersheba. Never forget that the legacy of the Battle of Beersheba by the Australian Light Horse Brigade was an Australian led victory that helped, in part, to return Israel to the Jewish people. I know what my mother's husband, Jack Leonard, and his World War II mates who fought and died for Australia would say about Labor's vote at the UN and the appalling failure to act on anti-Semitism. I know exactly what my mother would be thinking and feeling if she were alive. I know personally what my one living sister thinks right now: this is not the Australia my father died for. What we have now is definitely not the Australia that these men and women gave their lives for.

I had the honour of laying a wreath at Tyne Cot on behalf of our service men and women. I also saw the cemetery at Polygon Wood. And I met the oldest Menin Gate bugler and thanked him most profoundly for the fact that they have played 'The Last Post' over 30,000 times. They're all volunteers. I looked at those 55,000 names on that bridge, and I thanked him for playing 'The Last Post' and for all his people. He was one of the oldest ones surviving. He said: 'You listen to me. At the time, it was like genocide when the Germans were rolling across this country. What we know here is that all we are and all we have is because of your Australians' blood on our soil.' That freedom and that right is what Australians should be continuing to fight for.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the member for Lalor, there is no prouder moment than when standing to deliver a speech supporting our budget, the third budget of the Albanese Labor government, at a time when we know Australians are doing it tough. I know that in my community people are under mortgage stress and renters are struggling to find the funds to pay their rents.

The children I talk to when I visit schools are relaying those things to me in our question-and-answer sessions. I've been the member for Lalor for 10 years. In the last few months when I've been to schools to talk about civics and citizenship, and it's come to questions and answers, there have been lots of young people talking to me about families that they know that have had some time being homeless. Young people are asking questions about inflation. I know how deep this goes, because I'm hearing it from primary-school-age children.

That's why I'm so proud of this budget. It's a budget that prioritises easing cost-of-living pressures and it's been designed to help every Australian, not just some. It is a Labor budget through and through. It's a budget to support those doing it tough and to build the industries needed to power Australia into the future.

As part of this budget, we are delivering a tax cut for every taxpayer in Lalor and giving every household in Australia a $300 energy rebate. We're wiping $3 billion in student debt and fixing the indexation issues around HECS. We're investing in new bulk-billed Medicare urgent care clinics in other communities; we already have one in Lalor. We're making medicines cheaper for people in Lalor. We're delivering the first back-to-back increase in rent assistance in more than 30 years, and I know what that means to some of the families in Lalor. It delivers for women. This budget delivers for workers, for young people, for families and for small businesses. It's a budget for everyone, coming off the back of two years of work to get wages moving and get inflation down. Those are the priorities of this Labor government. It's a responsible budget. The focus is on relieving financial stress—for families, workers and people across the country—without increasing inflation.

The government is providing $3.5 billion in energy relief for all Australian households and one million eligible small businesses. We know that relief needs to be provided where it matters. From 1 July, more than 10 million households will receive a total rebate of $300 and eligible small businesses will receive $325 off their electricity bills throughout the year.

One of the other headlines of this budget obviously is the relief for university students and for those who have studied. Our government's budget is making HECS-HELP fairer by capping the HELP indexation rate to the lower of either the consumer price index—the CPI—or the wage price index. This will be backdated to June 2023, meaning that those with a HELP debt will receive a credit. It will also ensure that HELP debts never grow faster than wages again. The government will cut $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians. It's an issue that's important in my electorate. Lalor is home to one of the youngest demographics in the country, and this change will support 19,500 people who have a HELP debt in the community I represent.

Another key issue for the people of Lalor that this budget helps with is the cost of medicines. We're investing $4 billion to deliver cheaper medicines to ease pressure on household budgets by freezing the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payment and adding more medicines to the PBS. Across Lalor, residents have already saved $2 million thanks to the Albanese government's commitment to delivering cheaper medicines. Those in our community who access PBS medicines are set to save even more following our freeze on the maximum cost to PBS medicines. We're also ensuring that pensioner and concession cardholders in Lalor won't pay more than $7.70 for their PBS medications for the next five years. That is a great comfort to those who are filling more than one script often. The actions taken by this government are again supported in this budget, delivering cheaper medicines for people across the community that I represent.

In the area of health, one of the things I'm proudest of has been our government's work in making Medicare more available to Australians, and we've done that by tripling the bulk-billing incentive. I know, for Deputy Speaker Chesters's electorate, how important this has been in the area of Bendigo. Equally, it has been important in Lalor. We've strengthened the distribution priority area through recognising 700 areas with either full or partial DPA status, including Wyndham. This has been a game changer, because under those opposite we lost 30 per cent of our GPs when we lost our DPA status. This government has restored our DPA status, and those GP clinics are attracting doctors and assisting to train doctors and get them qualified in our community. It's absolutely critical, and I'm really proud it's something that this government has done. It means more skilled doctors are able to take their experience to benefit the lives of those living in regional, rural and remote Australia or, as in our case, in the outer suburbs in the growth corridors.

Residents in Lalor have continued to reap the benefits of our government's investments and will continue to do so through this budget, with an additional 2,000 bulk-billed visits to the GPs in Lalor since November 2023. Our community will continue to access bulk-billed walk-in urgent care from the Werribee Medicare urgent care clinic, which, of course, was established when we came to office. Sixty-three thousand residents in Lalor accessed 168,000 pathology services last year, and the number of people accessing these services is significant. We are making sure that pathology tests remain bulk-billed by indexing the Medicare rebates for common medical tests—something that I know is important to locals.

But the big news in this budget and something that I am really proud of is that in the city of Wyndham, which is home to the electorate of Lalor—where our community has for too long had to travel to Geelong or the city to access a Medicare rebated MRI or fork out hundreds of dollars from their own pockets—this Labor government has fixed that issue. Unlike the previous government, who continued to give more Medicare rebated licences to Geelong and ignore the west of Melbourne, this Labor government has made a commitment to provide four Medicare rebated MRI licences in the city of Wyndham, the first of which will come online in the coming months.

This is a game changer for our local community. I know because I have been at our hospital, and, at one point during the time that those opposite were in government, I watched people be put into patient transport inside our hospital and be taken across the road to get an MRI and then have the privilege of paying $500 for that service, not for the transport but for the MRI, because it wasn't a Medicare rebated MRI licence. Now we will have four. That is a game changer for so many locals.

One of the things I'm proudest of in this budget is the announcement around the increase again for fee-free TAFE. This is an absolutely critical part of the Labor government's priorities, and the impact it has in my electorate can't be understated. We're investing $88 million to deliver an additional 20,000 fee-free TAFE and VET places, including 5,000 pre-apprenticeships, that will be for construction and housing. In an area like mine, where we build houses—it's what we do every day—this is critical. I know how many small businesses will be welcoming that news. It means that they can take on apprentices and that those apprentices will be able to afford this process. It's going to be a game changer for so many small businesses in my electorate. That, of course, is on top of the work that we've already done in the fee-free TAFE space across the last two years, with hundreds of thousands of people getting training, accessing training and joining our workforce.

This budget is about priorities, but the most important thing about this budget is that it steps out what we will be doing in terms of investing in a future made in Australia. Budgets are about priorities, and this budget really tells Australia what this government is about. We're about ensuring that the good jobs of the future are created here in this country; that we become more than a quarry and a farm; and that, where we have resources, we are value-adding to those resources and ensuring that we have the skilled workforce we need to get these jobs done. Just as we are creating another 20,000 fee-free TAFE places and apprenticeships in the housing industry so that we can build the 1.2 million homes that we know we need across the next 10 years to ensure that our young people and other people can afford houses, we need to invest wisely in the Future Made in Australia so that we can position ourselves to gain the benefit of the opportunities of the decades ahead. There's a $22.7 billion plan for a Future Made in Australia. It will help us to be an indispensable part of the global economy as we shift to renewable energy. It will help us attract investment, make our country a renewable energy superpower, value-add to our resources and increase economic security. It backs Australian ideas, innovation and science. It invests in our people and our places, particularly our regions. It's thoughtful. It's a policy that will drive us for the next decade.

This budget demonstrates a responsible Labor government doing what needs to be done to support families, communities and workers right now on the ground but with an eye on the future, ensuring that as a country we are making the most of the opportunities presented to us and the opportunities that we have already in this great country.

Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Community Safety, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prior to the last election, Prime Minister Albanese promised that mortgages would be lower and energy bills would be reduced by $275. In fact, everything was supposed to get easy. Can I say that in my electorate of La Trobe it's tough. It is really tough. Families are doing it tough, especially in the growth corridor that includes areas like Clyde North, Pakenham and Officer, where we're having all of these new houses built. The average mortgage has gone up an incredible $35,000 in one year, so people have to come up somehow with $35,000, and it is super tough. I can't see things, sadly, improving in the near future.

When it comes to inflation, which is what's causing the rise in interest rates, Australia's inflation is worse than that of the US, Singapore, Germany, Spain, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, South Korea, Canada, France and the entire euro area. What makes it worse is Labor's weak economic management, including an extra $315 billion in spending, a 5.4 per cent fall in productivity and their renewables-only emergency policies. Under Labor, prices have increased by 10 per cent for many essential items. Housing is up 12 per cent, rent is up 12 per cent and insurance is up a massive 26 per cent. Can I just say how difficult that is, especially for small business. I'm hearing this all the time. I was speaking the other day to a gentleman, one of my Indian friends, Nav, who owns Star Motorworks, and he was saying his business has been broken into twice over the weekend. On one occasion, I think, $60,000 worth of items were stolen. He said it's happening in the whole area. You can imagine what that means when it comes to getting insurance renewed. Premiums rise, and it's just going to get worse and worse. Electricity is up 18 per cent when it was supposed to come down, as Prime Minister Albanese announced on, I think, 85 occasions when he was opposition leader. Gas is up 25 per cent.

When it comes to rents, why are rents increasing? When you look at immigration, Labor's making the housing crisis much worse by bringing in 1.67 million migrants over five years. In terms of the houses being constructed at the moment, there's only one premises being built for every five migrants coming in. So, again, in my electorate of La Trobe, it's making it exceptionally difficult. When I went down to Casey Hospital and spoke to the nurses there, I asked them how are they were going bringing in overseas nurses. They said that that was not the big issue; it was actually trying to find accommodation for them.

I know some migration agents were kind of excited when Labor first came to power. Under Home Affairs and the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, all these education visas were being quickly approved. They thought it was fantastic. They said, 'These are all being approved.' The same migration agents are now saying to me, 'It's a horror show.' The reason is that, out of the roughly 2,400 migration agents and certified lawyers—when I was assistant minister in the Home Affairs portfolio I looked after the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority, whose job it is to look after registered migration agents—700 notices have gone out to migration agents and lawyers in cases where someone has maybe applied for a humanitarian visa or it's been found that a student visa was issued based on false documentation. What they've found out, in hindsight, is that when the Liberals and the coalition were in government the checks and balances would have been done before the person arrived to make sure that there was no false documentation. Now the onus has been reversed to put it on the education agent and the migration agents to have done the checks beforehand. So we've now got over 700 of these notices being served. And, if you look now, Labor has banned students from certain states in India from making applications. The states are Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Kashmir, to name a few. Can I say that the Indian community is outraged by this.

Now, when things are tough, we have $172 million being spent on advertising campaigns—stage 3 tax cuts, the ute tax. People would have seen them at bus stops, on the radio and on YouTube. This is on top of the $450 million that was wasted on the failed referendum.

What really annoys me is this: in the 2022 budget, the Albanese government cut $50 million from the safer communities program for high-risk youth. This was a program we put in place under the previous government. My background is in the police force, and I got to see troubled youth. Those kids, who find it really tough to stay at school, are all around the country. Under this program that we put in place, grassroots organisations and groups could apply for funding of up to $1.5 million over three years. It really helped. There were three criteria: firstly, to keep kids in school; secondly, if they'd left school, to find them education or training to get a job; and, thirdly, if they're in youth detention, to have a mentoring program before they came out to make sure that they didn't go back to gangs et cetera. It was a ripper program. One hundred and thirty-three applicants were funded. Sadly, the program has been cut for all of these organisations right around the country. Parents of youngsters who had been going down the wrong path in life and who had been receiving very special support from youth workers or being kept at school with teachers are devastated. I remember Les Twentyman's program. Sadly, Les passed away this year. Les appeared before the inquiry I chaired that resulted in the report No one teaches you to become an Australian. Les said, if you want to make a difference for youth, put money into youth workers. I think that 30 per cent of applicants to the program were from Indigenous communities. So all of that has been scrapped. Like I said, we have money being spent on an advertising campaign, $172 million, to tell us why the stage 3 tax cuts are good and why the zero tax plan is good and we're cutting $50 million from helping our youth. Where are the government's priorities? In La Trobe we had the Officer train station car park cancelled—$15 million. That's gone. Sadly, $650,000 had already been spent on the design and planning of that car park.

The Narre Warren car park in the seat of Bruce, $15 million, was scrapped in 2022. Narre Warren is a very fast-growing area in the seat of Bruce. I congratulate our candidate, Zahid Safi, an Afghan. He's a great guy and he's been out and about. He couldn't believe it when I told him, 'You know what, there's supposed to be a car park going here and it's been cancelled.' It's just a shame. I caught the train for 17 years when I was in the police force. You just want to get to the train station, park your car and get on the train. Down in Narre Warren, they have to drive everywhere; it's an absolute crying shame.

Then we had Wellington Road upgrade and, again, $110 million was ripped out of the budget in 2022. I acknowledge the member for Casey. Wellington Road is a very dangerous road. As a former police officer, I looked at the statistics and, sadly, there have been 72 serious collisions in the last five years. I've had people send me emails when family members have tragically died on that road. It is a dangerous road. The ridiculous situation was that I went to three councils—Casey Council, Yarra Ranges Council and Cardinia Shire Council—to get an estimate of how much it would cost to duplicate this road from Glenfern Road right up to Clematis, about 25 to 30 kilometres. I don't think there are many telephone poles around there. There are no gutters. They said the top estimate would be $220 million, so we decided to go halves with $110 million. Then the state Labor government came along and said, 'No, it's actually going to be $900 million.' That was an insane price increase, so that was scrapped.

One of the points about Wellington Road is we had the Ash Wednesday bushfires back in 1981. Cockatoo was devastated in those bushfires. Lives were lost. Wellington road is the main escape route there and it is still a single road. We haven't had major fires up in the Dandenong for many years. We had the Bunyip Road fire a number of years ago which wasn't too bad and we were very fortunate with the Black Saturday bushfires. I know that the member for Casey raised this with the CFA when it was pointed out to him. If there is a fire there and trees fall over the road and the road is blocked, you've got gutters on the side which are sometimes a metre deep where people can get trapped. If there's a fire there, many lives will be lost. So it's not only a dangerous road when it comes to traffic but also a very dangerous road when it comes to bushfires.

The Sealing the Hills project was $300 million to Yarra Ranges Council and Cardinia Council. Can I say how unfair it is that people are living in the Dandenong Ranges on dirt roads and, if there's a fire there, some of guttering on the side could be a metre deep. We started that program in partnership with the councils and also a local residents payment scheme. That program was going to seal 164 roads in La Trobe. It was already under way. It was doing great. What happened? Again, Labor came in, scrapped the funding and are now putting it to Daniel Andrews' rail project, which I think is going to cost $200 million. It's an absolute crying shame.

A project which did survive was the Clyde Road upgrade, an extra lane from the train line to across the Monash freeway. Again, I've got the estimates from Casey Council. It was going to cost $70 million to build. Then state Labor came back and said, 'No it will be $250 million.' We then had a review for 18 months. I have no idea why the transport minister, the member for Ballarat, put this in place. All of the workers left, everything stopped, but I was hearing they were still getting paid. That road project is now in the vicinity of $250 million. The same happened with the Pakenham Road upgrades from McGregor Road and Racecourse Road. So all the workers went off again, I think for another 18 months. They're all back there again; I see the CFMEU flags up there. But, again, local council estimated that project to be $70 million, and it blew out to $400 million.

So it's really tough out there for residents in La Trobe and right across the country. I've been to many budget speeches, in both government and opposition, and I can say that you could tell it wasn't a good budget when the Labor staff members came into the gallery. It was very subdued, because they knew it was not hitting the mark at all. Looking at the response by opposition leader Peter Dutton, people are agreeing that we need change. And I hear Labor member agreeing, too, and I thank you for that. We need change, and it has to come quickly. Bring this election on.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a great pleasure to be here to speak on our Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2024-2025, and I do so because I feel very proud to belong to a Labor government that has delivered, in consecutive budgets, a surplus, as well as delivering measures to make sure pressure on the cost of living is moved downwards—things like a Future Made in Australia, which will benefit our future economic growth as a nation. To have a good economy you need good future economic growth and products that we can make here in Australia to export as well as use locally. And, as I said, this was the second consecutive surplus that's been delivered in many, many years.

Of course the budget centrepiece, I suppose, which will really bring cost-of-living pressures downward, is the tax cuts. Under this government and under the announcements made in the budget and previously, the tax cuts will deliver, for someone earning $130,000, for example, $2,600 per person. Someone on $73,000 will get a tax cut of $1,500. And approximately two million workers who earn under $45,000—the minimum that they can earn—will be better off under this government, whereas under the previous government's proposals there was nothing: not a single dollar in it for people earning under $45,000. That will assist people in this current economic climate. The energy rebate of $300 per household will assist people with their energy costs.

And of course there is the largest investment ever, by any government, in housing. An extra $32 billion was put into our investment in housing to assist with the current housing crisis that we have. We know that the first port of call in anyone's life is getting a roof over their head. That is the beginning and the foundation of any structure in life. First you need to have that security of knowing you have somewhere to live, a roof over your head. We know that is so important. That's why we are investing $32 billion in housing.

And of course there were the announcements of the urgent care clinics—adding another 29 across the country, hopefully one in my electorate, which will assist in getting those hospital lists down and freeing up the emergency departments. We've already seen some operating in Adelaide near and around my electorate, already putting downward pressure on emergency departments. We've seen the biggest investment in bulk-billing in history, unlike from the previous government, under which rebates didn't go up, and we were seeing the copayments continually increasing. But we've now had the biggest investment in bulk-billing in Australia's history and are seeing those copayments going downwards. And, as I said earlier, we will have a Future Made in Australia.

In my electorate some great infrastructure projects are taking place, which have been going on for quite some time now. For example, the North-South Corridor, which basically starts in the northern suburbs and finishes at the end of the southern suburbs, in metropolitan Adelaide, has had a lot of work done to it. I've just got to add a bit of history here so that this chamber is aware of how all of this started. This was an announcement by the Rudd-Gillard government back in 2010. I clearly recall turning the first sod with the member for Grayndler, now Australia's Prime Minister, back in 2012 or 2013 in the section that was in my electorate. I'm pleased to say that work has begun between that area of South Road on Hindmarsh through to Crowder Park, which will see a tunnel underneath where the current South Road is. Hopefully that will continue and will free up a lot of traffic.

We've also seen announcements for the Marion Road and Sir Donald Bradman Drive intersection in Cowandilla, in my electorate. This intersection gets so congested, so this is a great announcement by the federal government, together with the state government, to free that blockage up with infrastructure works there. And, of course, the Grange Road-Holbrooks Road-East Avenue works to assist with congestion as well.

One of the infrastructure projects taking place in my electorate is the Cross Road-Marion Road tram crossing. It was announced under the previous government, but nothing was done. It was an election promise in 2013, but 2013 came and went. Then 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019—they all came and went and not a thing was done. It took a Labor government to come up with the funding and the investment of billions of dollars, which will assist the traffic in that area, which is right on the border of the electorate of Hindmarsh, the electorate of Adelaide and the electorate of Boothby.

These are real actions that are being taken by this Labor government to assist people's lives. Whether it be energy costs in giving that rebate of $300 or more money for Medicare or tax cuts: all these things make a difference in people's lives. And as I said, tax cuts will be affecting 13.6 million people. People across this country will receive a tax cut. This includes 93,000 people in the Adelaide electorate. Every single taxpayer will receive a tax cut. The average tax cut for taxpayers in my electorate of Adelaide will be approximately $1,540. That is the average tax cut to every person in my electorate.

Labor's tax cuts will deliver a bigger tax cut for Middle Australia to help with the cost of living, to put downward pressure on the increases in costs of living. Labor's tax cuts will provide greater tax relief to low- and middle-income taxpayers from 1 July 2024, which is coming up soon. A majority, 90 per cent, of women taxpayers will be retaining, on average, an additional $707 per year compared with the previously legislated tax cuts.

As I said, we've also increased the Medicare levy low-income thresholds from 2023-24, ensuring more than one million low-income taxpayers continue to be exempt from the Medicare levy or pay a reduced levy rate. And there is the $3.5 billion in energy bill relief for all Australian households and one million eligible small businesses.

A big issue in my electorate is HECS and the HECS-HELP relief for students. We know that the government will cut $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians. This means the change will support 29,157 people within the seat of Adelaide who will get this HECS-HELP relief for students. The Albanese Labor government has invested almost $4 billion to deliver cheaper medicines to ease pressures on household budgets, and by freezing the PBS, which is assisting people, the PBS co-payment, and adding more medicines to the PBS. What does this mean for the residents in the federal seat of Adelaide? We have already saved $3,742,669 thanks to this government's commitment to deliver cheaper medicines. Everyone in the federal seat of Adelaide who accesses the PBS medicines are set to save even more.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being 12.30, the debate is interrupted. The debate will be adjourned, and a resumption of the debate will be made an order of the next sitting day. The member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed on a future date.